


Babysitting

by rowofstars



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Established Relationship, F/M, Ficlet, Fluff, The Dark One is a big giant idiot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-06 07:43:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20287888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowofstars/pseuds/rowofstars
Summary: Rumple, the Dork One, "accidentally" acquires a baby.





	Babysitting

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry this is dumb. For the Writer's Month prompt #17: accidental baby acquisition.

“Rumplestiltskin?”

Belle’s voice made him groan internally.

He had been the Dark One, the most powerful sorcerer in the realm, for nearly three hundred years. His power came from one of the darkest and oldest forms of magic. He had kings and queens in his back pocket, dragons and ogres quaking with fear at the mention of his name, and even a noble woman cleaning his castle. Well, _cleaning_ was stretching things a bit far. Mostly she made tea and read books, and tormented him with her beautiful smiles and soft, lingering touches until she drug him off to her bedchamber and had her wicked way with him. But he was _still_ the Dark One, and he was currently embarking on a secret quest to find and cast the darkest curse ever known.

Despite all of that, just the sound of Belle’s voice saying his name so sternly, could reduce him to a cowed, anxious mess.

“Yes, dear?” he said, turning away from his workbench.

She held up a large basket with two hands, and raised her eyebrows. Inside the basket, wriggling under a very soft blanket in a delicate pink, embroidered with flowers in a fine gold thread, that may or may not have been his own, was a baby.

“It was an accident.” He sighed. “I can explain…”

Belle moved to the workbench and set the basket down before crossing her arms over her chest. “I can’t wait to hear this one. How does the Dark One accidentally acquire a baby?”

He made a face. “It’s Ella’s.”

“Ella?”

“The girl you met in the market last week,” he explained. “The one with the vile step-mother and step-sisters, that she’s been forced to live with since her husband died last winter?”

“Oh! Right,” Belle said, frowning. “Why do you have her baby? What did you do to her?”

He pressed a scaly, clawed hand to his chest. “Me?” Her head tilted to the side and he rolled his eyes and waved his hand. “She’s _fine._ She’s at a ball.”

“A ball?”

“Yes,” he said, leaning close to his beloved. “She was there when I went to meet with the blacksmith. She wanted to make a deal as well, and I.. might have...agreed. In exchange for her bringing me an item from the castle in which the ball is being held.”

“_And?_”

“And,” he continued, “I sent her off in a magical dress and carriage, to a ball where a handsome young prince is desperately seeking a wife that isn’t chosen for him by his father.”

Rumple gave her a small smile, and her lips twitched. “Is this about what you want from the castle, or are you playing matchmaker again?”

“_No…_” He glanced at the baby, and felt his cheeks flush. “Perhaps... Anyway, she refused my deal because she had no one to watch the child.”

Belle shook her head and then pushed up on her toes, pressing her lips to his cheek. “And you thought the Dark One would be the best possible babysitter?”

“Well, I certainly wasn’t going to leave her with Ella’s family.” His nose wrinkled, and next to them the baby gurgled.

They turned to look at her, and she kicked and wiggled in the basket.

“She’s adorable,” Belle said, touching her fingertips to a chubby little hand. 

The action made something clench in Rumple’s chest. “Yes, but don’t go getting _attached._ She has to be returned after midnight.”

Belle shot him a sideways look. “Yes, _I’m_ the one who gets attached to small, cute things.”

He attempted to look affronted, but just then a black cat hopped up on the table and padded over to give the basket an inquisitive look. There was a whole other story behind how he might have obtained said cat.

“Be nice, Duchess,” Belle said, giving the cat a scratch behind her ears. “This is -”

She looked at Rumple, and he smiled. “Beatrice.”

“Beatrice,” she repeated, smiling sweetly at the baby. “She’s our guest for the rest of the day.”

Then Belle wiggled her hands into the basket, beneath the baby, and lifted little Beatrice out, blanket and all. Beatrice cooed and settled happily against Belle, and Rumple sighed to himself. He reached out to brush the back of his hand against Beatrice’s soft skin, and Belle looked up at him with a knowing smile and a shine in her eyes. It might only be for a few hours, but it was too easy to imagine a future that looked like this, Belle and a baby. And him.

If he was very very lucky...


End file.
